Twitter is taking a new approach to influence its users to read the content. Such a move aims to promote relevance to whatever their sharing. Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s Product Chief, mentioned that it’s easy for links to go viral on the platform. But it can be dangerous if people don’t read the content on the link. Thus, to encourage users to read the article, Twitter adds new retweet prompts.
Today, once a user tries to retweet a post, he/she will receive a warning prompt with 3 options:
- Read
- Retweet
- Retweet with Comment
There’s also a message highlighting the importance for one to read the whole article before a retweet.
Unfortunately, the free speech platform Gab disagrees with the update. They look at it as putting friction when sharing updates. And it will result in slowing down the sharing. But for most, this a good thing. People should read the full message of the post they are amplifying.
Twitter’s new retweet prompts are available for android users as of 10 June 2020.
Implications for Marketers:
The new retweet prompts are a good way to encourage further engagement to the target audiences. Encouraging them to read the whole article will be an opportunity to further influence their buying decisions. Thus, marketers should aim to create relevant, rich in value, and timely content. They should find creative ways to capture the audience’s attention. But at the same time, they must ensure that the article associated with the tweet gives value to the readers. We also recommend keeping an eye on trending hashtags. Commonly, these topics are the ones users demand while an issue is hot. In this way, brands can relate themselves with the trends to increase engagement.
